Week Fourteen: The Meek and White Ninja

This final week I looked through The Meek and White Ninja. The Meek was really cool, so far I've really been into the story and would like to keep reading more of it. It's awesome that Der-shing Helmer has made it an online comic, I just don't understand how artists are able to make money frommm it then? White Ninja was funny too but you know it was done a lot quicker than The Meek. So how is an artist rewarded for all that time put into making a piece? Maybe... they're not? Hmmm.

I'm not sure if I am more for web comics and "real" comics. I really enjoy hoping a book and flipping through pages. The experience of doing that feels like part of becoming part of this other world. But on the computer is okay too, and with the Ipads, maybe it's the way to go? 

I think web comics will probably start to become more of a focus, but I don't think paper comics will ever go out.

Extra Credit: Cosmix

COSMIX! Hmmhmmmhmmmm my favorite piece of the night was probably Trish & Gil. I think that was the title.. it's the one with the girl and her new boyfriend whose a total jerk. What really struck me about that piece was how it was filmed. I looved how the audience was getting to see the shot from so many different angles. And then from those different angles different things in that scene were revealed. So cool. I feel like that using the camera and screen in that way is something that could be definitely be used for future films.

Tranquility was really nice too, it wasn't super long and there wasn't really anything except landscapes, but again I enjoyed the way the artist really used the dome.

Miss Clark Introduces Panorama was fun too, I don't think the title of it was suppose to appear on the west side of the dome, but I really liked that it made the audience have to adjust to discover what it was. The content was funny and though it was much different than the last two pieces I listed it too used the full dome very well (good job :) !

"Buy the Ticket..." was another one that although I would have been okay with it being shorter, was really interesting to watch. The Jones' used the dome in a much more abstract than Trish & Gil, Tranquility and Miss Clark but they still used it well. I think after some time I had to stop watching the screen because it was making me dizzy but Jason was telling me it started to look as if the pattern had reversed. I'd be cool to hear how they composed that and what kind of optical illusions they looked into while making it.

I think the thing I liked least about Cosmix this year was how abruptly everything ended. A lot of the work ended without warning it made them feel unresolved.

Week Thirteen: Preacher and Hellboy

This week I started off with Preacher. I wasn't really sure what it was about and thought I'd try it out. After not too long I realized it wasn't what I wanted to read, the content was eh, the comic is drawn in a grungy/dirty/white trash kind of style that I'm not really drawn to. So I decided to look into Hellboy, not expecting to really get much from it but I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen the movie, but I kind of assumed the comic would mimic the huge rock-like-yet-still-realistic-looking muscles I had seen in the trailers. Instead I was met with Mike Mignola's flat shapes and minimalistic characters. I read through the one about.. Nazi's ? Though I'm not hugely interested in super heros I did enjoy reading through and looking at Mignola's work. It's nice to see where people have taken super heros and how they've changed.

Week Twelve: Arabian Nights

This week I read through Lillian Chestney's Arabian Nights. Her style was really whimsical and "inky." There have been some comics that have heavy inking that I reallyyy don't like, but Lillian does a good job of mixing up her lines and giving different things different weight.

Though these stories shouldn't have been brand new to me, most of them were. The stories were really engaging as well as each layout for each page. This would be a great comic to see in person cause I think there's just so much you can take in, and it'd be nice to see them with the page they were intended to be seen with. There were some points were the layout of one panel was so intricate (for example there was a circular panel that was being held by a woman) that I was confused and not sure if the character and/or things around the panel were part of the scene or just a decoration.

The whole comic really reminded me of the short film we had watched towards the beginning of the year, I think theyy were connected somehow..

Week Eleven: Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth

For this week I read Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth. I must say at first I was really confused, I didn't realize that Ware was taking us to all different time periods of Jimmy's life. It's not the the style or the content really changed, I think the character just didn't register as the same person to me.  The comic was okay, the content left you feeling kind of isolated and alone. Which I suppose it the intent of the comic itself. You feel like this world that Jimmy lives in is pretty lonely. He's always doing things alone or with his mom, his interactions with other people seems very limited. Ware makes sure to never show anyone else's face (thoughhh you do see the his mom's face in the very beginning and "Super - Man"s masked face at the end). Not only that but he also draws Jimmy different from the other characters. He's made Jimmy into this kind of soft cartoony guy while the world around him tends to be feel harder and more realistic. I guess that also play into all the strange things that he'll do that aren't possible (like shooting himself, shrinking, or digging a fork into his arm). The title is also interesting, "The Smartest Kind on Earth"... ? Jimmy doesn't really do anything. He's always alone. He doesn't have any friends. And he's extremely awkward. I suppose it's either a sarcastic title or a comment on who we see as smart in our world today. I think it's just to be stupid and add to the strange/awkward quality of the comic holds to. Ware artistically approaches Jimmy's world in a isolated/lonely way but just having flat color everywhere.

I think my favorite panels are the ones of the outside of Jimmy's house over a day or so, where you see the light change and his light being on, and his neighbor's lights being off (I think those are the only colored panels with more line work too? so they really stand out. Interesting choice).

The story was hard to follow. I didn't always understand what was happening, if he was dreaming? or just flashing back, or just day dreaming.

Overall it was okay, not something I'd invest a lot of time into reading.

Week Ten: Blacksad!

Ohhh Blacksad was a fun find for this week. Though it was listed on the resource page in French I was able to follow the story pretty perfectly. I translated a few panels to be sure I was correct in my assumptions but it was really refreshing to just be able to look through a comic and understanding the whole story. Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido did a great great job telling the story. The whole comic feels like film noir too, really awesome shots and great drawings. 


I went through Blacksad: Quelque part entre les ombres and Arctic Nation. Hmm betweeeen the two, I'm not sure which I liked more. The story had more depth in Arctic Nation, I think that's just because there was more of a back story with the polar bear and the idea of dealing with "fur color" relates back to the civil rights movement and segregation. Compared to the death of an ex-lover, it just felt heavier and a little more established. But I enjoyed both.


Other than Maus I think Blacksad has been my favorite comic of the semester. It's a work that I would definitely reference for composition and shots in my own work. 

Week Nine: Maison Ikkoku

I've never been a big Manga fan, I think I was actually quite against it for awhile. I guess just because in precollege there were people that drew Manga and I remember it being announced "There is a whole country that can draw Manga better than you. So draw something else." But other than seeing my brother watch DragonballZ I never really got anywhere close to anything Manga related. This week I read through Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku. It's a bit cheesy and silly, it feel a lot like a looser Archie. There's a silly guy with a crush on the Manager of the house, there's other weird guests that live there and are distracting and keeping him from the love of his life. Kind of typical, but I think the light heartedness of it has been refreshing and enjoyable. Something I can see myself reading once a week.

Week Eight: King

I knowww everyone in class had said King was dry, and it wasn't their favorite, but nonetheless I really wanted to try and read it. Though I must say, everyone's comments on it were right on. I've always been really interested in civil rights and what our country has gone through to reach the place we are today with those ideals. I was really into Martin Luther King Jr for awhile so I thought it was worth giving King a shot.

Opening up King made me realize how important it is to handle your text with just as much care as your panels in a comic. The text is AWEFUL in King. It looks like someone just opened up Word and typed it up and pasted in Anderson's illustrations. Eh yucky. And as stuck up as it may sound it makes me not want to read it.

Ho Che Anderson's style is really interesting. I fee like it changes page to page. I didn't like the first couple of pages of King but once you start getting towards the end I really like how some of the panels were coming out. Graphic shapes and flat patterns. Cool stuff, reminds me of a girl's work here. I think Anderson should have looked into how to organize pages/panels more though. Some pages just felt so overwhelming it was hard to figure out what was going on and who was talking to you. And the speech bubble lines would go forever! I think Anderson needed to allow room for more panels to say everything he wanted.

Anderson's second King book looked more promising to me from the cover. And on the inside I could definitely see that his approach to each page was simplified and muchhh easier to read. But the change in drawing style wasn't my favorite. It became much more cartoony, less abstract and painterly, which I had enjoyed in the first King.

Week Seven: Maus

Throughout the semester as we've read through different comics and there's only been a few that really stood out to me, Maus would definitely be one of them. At a glance it looked interesting, something about mice and Nazi's, enough to grab my attention. When I sat down and began reading through it I gave myself a time limit and said if I didn't finish it in that time I'd come back. But I couldn't put it down, I had to find out what else had happened to Arthur's father, what had led his mother to kill herself? There were so many things that drew me to Maus. I think often times the content and the style of a comic can quickly disinterest me but Spielman did a fantastic job with the ink and story. From the way it was written I felt like I was spying on Spielman as he heard his fathers stories, like these were stories to hear and share with others.

It's interesting evaluating Spielman's reason for writing these novels. At first it seems like he's just interesting in recording his father's story to educate people about the Holocaust through a very personal media. The interruption of his father's story with his old comic about his mother's suicide was quite disturbing in itself. The style and tone were so different I felt like I had to read through it a few times to digest everything it was saying. The picture of his mother at the top also pulled me out of this world of animals, of mice and cats and pigs, and reminded me that everything in this novel happened to people. Real people that were slaughtered by other people. His mother was a real woman that chose to kill herself. And with that interruption came the idea that maybe his real reason for making these novels was to discover why his mother killed herself. Was it her past experiences? something his father had said? something Spielman had maybe done himself? was this a way to also tell her story?

I felt like a common trait that each character shared was selfishness. Spielman's father looked at himself a lot, in his new marriage, in his the decisions he made whether it was based on money or the way he felt, he put himself first. He wouldn't buy things for his new wife because he didn't want to spend money. He burnt Spielman's mother's journals because he had felt terribly sad and didn't want to have them. Was this way a thinking brought upon him because of the "survival mode" he was thrown into to make it through the Holocaust? Spielman's mother ultimately killed herself and though we don't know her exact reasoning we know the act of suicide is selfish. It's an easy way out, an escape, and a way to abandon everyone in your life. His father's new wife continues to complain about his father, how he doesn't treat her well, how cheap he is, and though her complaints are relevant she doesn't seem to look beyond herself. And more of Spielman's character is revealed at the end of the first book when he discovers his father burned all of his mother's old journals. The whole novel ends on such a sour note it made me think further about his character. Ultimately his reason for writing his father's story doesn't seem to be for his father, but to discover more about his mother. And when his father doesn't help to make that happen it leaves him angry and frustrated. Each character wants something from the others but none of them are willing to be completely selfless. 

All in all I would recommend Maus to everyone. Spielman does a great job composing his father's stories and giving readers a new way to look into the Holocaust. 

Week Six: Underground Comics

Hmm underground comics, I must say they are not at all what I'm interested in. I understand their intention however I'm not entertained by the reoccurring theme of sex and drugs. It comes across crude and cheap. But I feel like that's the intention of the artists and writers. Most of the main characters are rather simple characters in a rather simple world. From the one's I looked through there isn't a lot done with the environments. Throughout the comics certain characteristics are emphasized on different characters that immediately let the reader know the intention of the character. Whether it's small eyes and a large nose to make them appear stupid or a huge butt to show that their reason for being in the comic is to be seen as a body, the artists drawings very honestly show who the character is.

Mr. Natural was interesting. His whole existence is rather strange, he has these powers and abilities but he's not really good, but he's not really bad. In the ones I read through he wasn't really doing much, just conversing with other characters. It's not clear but Mr. Natural is, as far as why he has these powers. It doesn't appear like he does much with them except make other characters feel stupid. It'd be interesting to know more about what Crumb's inspiration was for Mr. Natural and if what kind of statements he was trying to make through this simple, "magical" character.

Week Five: Eisner and Thompson

It's nice finally understanding who Will Eisner is because for years I've seen his signature and just thought dang that looks a lot like Walt Disney, who is that? I really enjoyed learning more about Will Eisner and how he approaches the graphic novel. His work "A Contract With God" was really beautifully drawn. Though I wasn't really fond of any of the individual stories, his technique and approach to each page was really intriguing. Both him and Thompson have a wonderful way of breaking away from the normal approach to a comic page. The work I've seen before this was all based around lines, rectangles, squares, occasionally circles, it's refreshing to see an illustrator really use the whole page to tell the story rather than a certain amount of space. Thompson's ability to simplify his characters but put in details to their surroundings really shows off his line work. Though I am not a fan of the "slice of life" stories, I admire his technique. Both artists did a lovely job making their graphic narratives read like a film rather and a comic strip.

Week Four: The Comic Book

For this week I read through a few different things. I was having a difficult time getting some of them to open? but I was able to open up a few. The first one I read I'm having a hard time relocating to name, but it was about a boy who had the ability to want something and he could have it. He wasn't a super hero but wanted to be included in their meeting, so he was able to wish himself there. While he was there he asked some of the super heros about adventures they'd been on. The comic was okay, I wasn't crazy about the line work or the colors, it just felt heavy and saturated. The stories were fine, probably appealing to a 12 year old boy (though maybe not in this day and age). I also read through Tin Tin "Explorers On the Moon." It appealed more to me than the first one, but it started feeling really long. The characters were fun, and towards the end I really did want to keep reading to figure out how they'd get back on the spaceship and make it to Earth but I don't think I'd read it again. There were points were it felt wordy and personally I prefer when the image is at least telling just as much of the story as the script. Haha the Barbie and Ken comic was just a little ridiculous. It was all about different kinds of Barbie (nurse Barbie, bride Barbie) and basically how all these little girls wanted to be like her. Strange. I hope they didn't sell too many, seeing that comic made me concerned for girls idea of who they think they should be. Sure there's nothing wrong with any of Barbie's career choices but her whole being is unrealistically perfect. In the same way that boy don't need to be looking through violent comics, I don't think young girls should be flipping through comics may make have unrealistic expectations for themselves (in the physical sense, not the career sense).

Week Three: The Comic Strip

I really like comic strips. When I was younger I didn't read them all the time, but when I did I usually enjoyed them. Sometimes I felt a little confused when the comic was based something very average, just an everyday event or action. I felt like comic strips were always suppose to be funny. I suppose they don't have to be, but to evoke some kind of emotion from the audience in just a few panels laughter would be one of the easier ways to go. 

I really enjoy reading the Peanuts. They're kind of weird sometimes (sometimes Snoopy talks, sometimes he doesn't) but I like all the characters, they're all relatable in some way or another. Exploring the world around them is fun when seeing and hearing things through their simple conversations. The character's are drawn lightly and simply, they're easy to take in. The beauty of the Peanuts is they appeal to everyone, though it seems they're target audience is younger children and adults. 

I have heard a lot about Little Nemo but never read any of McCay's work until now. I love the large format, it really fits the content of the comic and kinda of puts the reader into a "child-like" way of reading the book (the size makes me think of when I was younger and books seemed so much bigger than me). The consistent format of the comic (how he always falls out of bed at the end) is something I normally wouldn't be attracted to, but found myself really enjoying. Though I don't feel super attached to any specific character really (Nemo is rather dull himself, more of an observer than an adventurer) the crazy things that tend to go on around him are interesting enough to keep me reading. 

Week Two: Scott McCloud

Reading through Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics proved itself to be very interesting. When I usually think of comics I think superheros, heavy inking, and saturated colors. And all of those things combined loose my interest quickly. Which is probably one reason I really don't like the cover. I know I've seen this book before but didn't pick it up because of how busy it feels. I think McCloud could have designed a much more simple and successful cover, especially since simplicity and icons are used throughout the book.

Beside the cover, the book itself does a great job of discussing cartoons, icons, and timing while also giving us some information about comics around the world. And the way McCloud wrote his thoughts very honestly and bluntly made me feel like I was listening to an engaging lecture. There were points of it that I began to loose interests, and I think most of those times were when the page arrangement looked boring. However, I do really like that the whole comic is in black and white. I think because of how much information he's giving the reader that color could have really made it more of a challenge to focus on each concept her went through.

Week One: The Arrival

Ahhh! The Arrival! I was excited to see this as our first reading assignment. A few years ago my parents wrapped it up and gave it to my for Christmas. I don't think they really knew much about it, just that it had lots of drawings and good reviews.

I think it was probably the first graphic novel I read (though I can't say I've really read many since then). The only books I've read that come to mind when thinking about images telling the whole story are Alexandra Day's Carl books. I use to flip through those a bunch when I was younger. I believe they would occasionally have text but not often. All the illustrations were very realistic, which I really enjoyed and I was mildly obsessed with animal when I was younger so reading through Carl's adventures were very entertaining. That brings me to the statement made on the class blog that "All comics are graphic narratives but not all graphic narratives are comics" which was a new thought for me. I think most of the graphic novels I've seen have been comic like. For example the collection of stories in "What is Torch Tiger?" was what I would commonly see as a graphic novel. But I realize through that statement I can classify Day's book as a graphic novel but it isn't the correct format to be considered a comic.

Going back to Shan Tan, when I first began flipping through this book was the first time I really considered the possibilities within graphic novels. Tan's book is just beautiful. I think one of my favorite things about the Arrival is though Tan's approach to the book is rather realistic, he isn't married to that style. All the creatures, buildings and food he creates give the book a very unique quality. And the experience isn't only created through his images. Just as we discussed in class, to really go through the intended experience of the book it's best when you can tangibly flip through it.

There are so many small lovely things that Tan incorporates in this book. One of those being the all the faces of individuals on the flyleaves. Just seeing those images makes me think of Ellis Island. Before I read any further, I already understand what the stories about. Another fun detail is the slight changes he makes to the pages when recording a flashback. Whether it's changing the page color or giving the images a picture like edge, it all allows the reader to understand exactly what's going on.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed going through The Arrival again. Shan's drawings are lovely and the whole story feels very cinematic. I look forward to seeing more of his work and further studying the aspects of a successful graphic novel.